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11/01/12

Cable follows Mandelson down the Knowledge Economy route

The latest Government missive aimed at promoting British business has been presented to parliament by Business Secretary Vince Cabel and Minister for Universities David Willetts - BIS innovation and Research Strategy for Growth - available on our Law Issues page.

Back in 1998, Blair's shiny new Labour Party was busy promoting the 'Knowledge Economy'. That year, competitiveness guru Peter Mandelson published a definitive white paper on the subject. The manual workers were no longer politically important; the future was to be with the new digital classes. Vince has come to the same conclusion - lets hope that, like Blair and Brown he doesn't get too distracted by the no-knowledge financial economy. LES fully supports the realisation that commercialisation of Intellectual Property is essential to our economic and social well being; we can't rely on exporting steam engines and railway lines anymore - which is not of course to undervalue those who still work in traditional areas.